Latest news with #Greco
CNBC
6 days ago
- Business
- CNBC
Confused and concerned, CEOs get to grips with Trump's new tariff regime
Business leaders are scrambling to get their head around a new era of tariff complexity. The bemused mood among European chief executives on Thursday came as U.S. President Donald Trump sought to reshape the global trading system in America's favor. The Trump administration slapped higher tariff rates of between 10% to 50% on dozens of trading partners just after midnight ET, following months of delays and extensions. As of Thursday, most imports into the U.S. will now face a baseline tariff rate of 10%, although the overall tariff effective tariff rate is estimated to have climbed to more than 17%, according to the Yale Budget Lab think tank. That represents the highest level of tariffs since 1935, during the Great Depression. Zurich Insurance CEO Mario Greco said on Thursday that he was "confused" by Trump's tariff announcements, according to Reuters. He reportedly added on a press call that the U.S. tariff blitz appeared to "part of the game, to create chaos." The Swiss insurer, which does not expect a new era of global trade rivalry to impact its business, said it was well positioned over the coming months. "Look, what is important for business is to have clarity and to have decisions. Business adapts and adjusts itself and we are prepared to any kind of conditions in the market, but clarity is very important," Greco told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe." Oliver Bate, CEO of German insurance giant Allianz, shared Greco's assessment of the tariff situation. "If you are not confused, I don't know what confuses a human being. But you have to see through the confusion," Bate told CNBC. "So, I can talk about being confused but our customers expect us to provide protection to them. Second, it doesn't affect us very much directly. The thing that does affect us on the accounting level is the volatility around foreign exchange and the potential volatility in financial markets," he added. Major trading partners, such as the U.K., Japan and South Korea, have secured deals to get lower tariffs than those announced by Trump in early April. The European Union has also struck a framework agreement to lower tariffs on most EU goods to 15%. Other countries have been hit harder by Trump's trade war. The U.S. has imposed levies of 50% on goods from Brazil, 39% on Switzerland, 35% on Canada and 25% on India. Carsten Knobel, CEO of German consumer goods and adhesives maker Henkel, described the current market environment as "very challenging and uncertain." "This is reflected due to the geopolitical tensions but also the trade and tariff conflicts — and also the military escalations we see in a lot of countries," Knobel told CNBC on Thursday. Worries about a lack of trade certainty was a common thread during earnings season. "One of the things that for us, if I look at the medium to long term outlook, is certainly a concern is the lack of certainty," Vincent Clerc, CEO of Danish shipping giant Maersk, told CNBC. "One thing is having to deal with baseline tariffs or tariff regime that you know you can count on when you're making investment decisions or when you're making strategic decisions," Clerc said. "What we feel from a lot of our customers is that this uncertainty is causing a delay on investments and could have an impact on global growth and global demand as people are waiting to see what is the right decision." Maersk, widely considered a barometer for global trade, said a sustained period in which businesses can get to grips with the announced trade deals would help customers manage a new phase of globalization. Siemens CEO Roland Busch, meanwhile, welcomed the passing of the latest tariff deadline, while making clear the development was likely to have a limited impact on the business. "The most important point was, of course, to have certainty now, which is good. We would have wished for lower tariffs. We are clear for global trade but the impact on our Siemens business for this current fiscal year is minor," Busch said.
USA Today
6 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Steve Erceg expects UFC champ Alexandre Pantoja to beat Joshua Van 'pretty handily'
Steve Erceg doesn't rate Joshua Van's chances too highly against UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja. Van (15-2 MMA, 8-1 UFC) is expected to be Pantoja's next title challenger after he defeated former title challenger Brandon Royval in a Fight of the Night effort at UFC 317. On the same night, Pantoja (30-5 MMA, 14-3 UFC) notched his fourth title defense with a submission of Kai Kara-France, and the pair faced off immediately after in the octagon. Erceg (12-4 MMA, 3-3 UFC), who put up a valiant effort against Pantoja in their title fight at UFC 301, sees the champion's grappling being too much for Van. "I think Pantoja wins pretty handily," Erceg told MMA Junkie. "Look, Van's very young, great boxing. I can't see him being able to stop the grappling of Pantoja. Yes, he has shown good takedown defense against the Japanese bloke (Tsuruya), who had good Greco and stuff like that, but the way he wrestles compared to Pantoja is very different. Pantoja's going to make it very chaotic, and he's going to get weird little takedowns off, like, trips. He does doubles and bow locks. Once he gets him down, he doesn't have to get him down and hold him down. He'll be on his back so fast. I don't see it lasting very long." After losing to Pantoja, Erceg went on to lose two straight to Kara-France and Brandon Moreno. He will look to snap a three-fight losing skid when he meets Ode Osbourne (13-8 MMA, 5-6 UFC) in Saturday's UFC on ESPN 72 (ESPN, ESPN+) co-main event at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Steve Erceg expects UFC champ Alexandre Pantoja to beat Joshua Van 'pretty handily'
Steve Erceg doesn't rate Joshua Van's chances too highly against UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja. Van (15-2 MMA, 8-1 UFC) is expected to be Pantoja's next title challenger after he defeated former title challenger Brandon Royval in a Fight of the Night effort at UFC 317. On the same night, Pantoja (30-5 MMA, 14-3 UFC) notched his fourth title defense with a submission of Kai Kara-France, and the pair faced off immediately after in the octagon. Erceg (12-4 MMA, 3-3 UFC), who put up a valiant effort against Pantoja in their title fight at UFC 301, sees the champion's grappling being too much for Van. "I think Pantoja wins pretty handily," Erceg told MMA Junkie. "Look, Van's very young, great boxing. I can't see him being able to stop the grappling of Pantoja. Yes, he has shown good takedown defense against the Japanese bloke (Tsuruya), who had good Greco and stuff like that, but the way he wrestles compared to Pantoja is very different. Pantoja's going to make it very chaotic, and he's going to get weird little takedowns off, like, trips. He does doubles and bow locks. Once he gets him down, he doesn't have to get him down and hold him down. He'll be on his back so fast. I don't see it lasting very long." After losing to Pantoja, Erceg went on to lose two straight to Kara-France and Brandon Moreno. He will look to snap a three-fight losing skid when he meets Ode Osbourne (13-8 MMA, 5-6 UFC) in Saturday's UFC on ESPN 72 (ESPN, ESPN+) co-main event at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Steve Erceg shares decisive Alexandre Pantoja vs Joshua Van prediction
Winnipeg Free Press
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
Elbows up this Canada Day
Canadian pride and thoughts of reconciliation hung in the air Tuesday as musicians and dancers helped ring in Canada Day at The Forks. With U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war and threats of annexation still fresh in people's minds, the flags seemed to fly a little higher and the energy buzzed a little more as the country celebrated its 158th birthday. 'I've seen a lot of 'elbows up' today,' Paul Hartwick, visiting from Burlington, Ont., said. 'I can tell people are now a little more protective of Canada.' Hartwick, a Maple Leaf Foods employee, said he rarely noticed Canadian flags around his Ontario home until about six months ago, when Trump was sworn in. Now, he sees multiple flags flying full-time. He's not the only one to notice a change. 'It's definitely more celebratory that Canada is sovereign and unique,' said Norm Beltrame, a former investment planner. 'We have something to be proud of, it's way more pronounced.' Hartwick said Canadians have usually been quieter and a little unassuming when it comes to being patriotic, and that it's nice to see people showing more support for their country by attending events like these. 'Maybe we took everything for granted a bit, and now seeing some of the things the guy south is saying about taking us over and stuff, they're becoming a little more prideful and thankful for how this country is versus the U.S.' While Canada Day celebrations the past few years have been tempered by anger over the discovery of potential unmarked graves of Indigenous children at residential schools and the previous Tory government's steadfast refusal to search landfills for the remains of three of four victims of serial killer Jeremy Skibicki, that anger seems to be softening. Or at least redirected into a path forward to reconciliation. The Forks has celebrated Indigenous Peoples from all different backgrounds for 11 days straight as part of its 'Many Nations, One Heartbeat' theme for 2025, which began on National Indigenous Peoples Day, June 21. Sarah Greco, a musician who was on the fence about performing on Canada Day at The Forks, recognizes it's a step in the right direction, but thinks more still needs to be done. She also pointed to education being the key and credited former Canadian senator and Indigenous advocate Murray Sinclair. 'Education got us into this mess, and that's what's going to get us out,' said Greco, a singer in the 'Sassy Mellows' band. 'Learning more about history and educating myself has really made me realize that there's a lot more that was hidden from us and we didn't know, so I'm just trying to advocate for that as best as I can in certain ways.' Greco is Métis, Cree, and Blackfoot and said she knows people who've been to residential schools. She uses entertainment and music as a platform to help spread the word about what Indigenous Peoples have suffered through in their past and are still experiencing now. 'It starts at home. If you can start with yourself and then maybe work outside of your community and offer help where you can, we will start seeing less division in the community,' she said. 'What we all need is community. We need people to come together and to progressively try and move forward.' Jerry Tom, an Indigenous man, almost didn't come. 'I had some mixed feelings about being here,' said Tom, 62, outside of The Forks Market. 'It's tricky because of what Canada has done to the Indigenous peoples with residential schools.' Tuesdays A weekly look at politics close to home and around the world. Tom believes the country should put more of its attention on reconciliation. He referenced the unmarked grave sites discovered at a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C., a few years ago and hopes that educating others will help create a more unified country. 'These issues are difficult to discuss, but they need to happen,' Tom said. 'It's a matter of education to make things better for everybody down the road.' Tom said he still hears racist comments from people and remembered the time someone referred to him as a 'dirty Indian' while walking down the city's streets. 'In those moments I always think, 'I feel sorry for your kids because you will pass that behaviour on to your children,'' he said.
Yahoo
26-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Former NYC Mayor Eric Adams adviser Winnie Greco back in action, helping drive turnout for campaign kickoff
NEW YORK — Two controversial allies of New York Eric Mayor Adams with ties to the Chinese government helped drive turnout for his Thursday reelection campaign kickoff rally, according to sources familiar with the matter. In the days leading up to the rally, Winnie Greco, an ex-senior adviser to Adams whose homes were raided by the FBI last year, worked the phones and took other steps to get people to show up for the event, the sources said. Robin Mui, an Adams donor and CEO of Chinese language newspaper Sing Tao, worked with Greco on that effort, the sources told the Daily News. Adams campaign spokesman Todd Shapiro said they aren't formally involved in the campaign and suggested people volunteer their services for all types of events. Mui, who's a registered agent of the Chinese government, and Greco didn't immediately return calls and texts. The rally was set to be held on the steps of City Hall around noon, and Adams' team says it 's expected to draw hundreds of supporters. It marks the first major campaign event Adams has held since President Donald Trump's Department of Justice in April secured a controversial dismissal of the mayor's corruption indictment, which alleged he took bribes and illegal campaign cash from Turkish government operatives. The dismissal has led many to believe Adams is beholden to Trump's agenda, an accusation the mayor denies. Greco resigned as a City Hall adviser to Adams after FBI agents in February 2024 raided her two Bronx homes as part of an investigation that has reportedly focused at least in part on her connections to China's government. A longtime fundraiser for Adams, Greco' met regularly with Chinese government Party officials while still at City Hall. The probe into Greco has produced no charges and it's unclear whether the inquiry is continuing. Greco's involvement in Thursday's rally comes after she appeared earlier this week with Adams for a ribbon-cutting event at a hookah lounge in Queens, the first time in months she was spotted publicly with him at an official government event. Mui has been a donor to Adams' political efforts going back to his time as Brooklyn borough president. Mui was forced by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2021 to register himself and his newspaper as agents of China's government. The DOJ made that call after determining they were engaged in 'political activity' on China's behalf. Mui has maintained he isn't a Chinese agent. Still, he has filed disclosures with the DOJ, as required under federal law, detailing his work activities. Last year, The News reported Mui had failed to report to the DOJ that he met in an official capacity in 2022 with Greco and Ingrid Lewis-Martin, Adams' then-chief adviser who has since been indicted on unrelated corruption charges.
